{"id":1405,"date":"2012-10-07T00:54:20","date_gmt":"2012-10-07T00:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/?p=1405"},"modified":"2012-10-07T00:54:20","modified_gmt":"2012-10-07T00:54:20","slug":"god-and-justice-and-pay-back-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/?p=1405","title":{"rendered":"God and &#8216;Justice&#8217; and &#8216;Pay Back&#8217; time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(Part 1 of a 5-part series)<\/p>\n<p>Because <em>Conversations with God <\/em>says that \u201cthere\u2019s no such thing as Right and Wrong,\u201d people often ask me: \u201cIs there no \u2018justice\u2019 in God\u2019s Kingdom?\u201d As I have understood the messages of CWG, the answer is \u201cno.\u201d Not the way we understand it.<\/p>\n<p>Yet to fully answer this question we have to, first of all, define what we mean by \u201cGod\u2019s Kingdom.\u201d In the truest sense (which is the only sense in which I prefer to speak), everything in existence is God\u2019s Kingdom\u2014and that includes, of course, life on Earth. Which would mean that there is \u201cno justice\u201d on Earth.<\/p>\n<p>There are many people who would agree with that. They would say that the \u201cjustice\u201d we see meted out on Earth is all too often not real \u201cjustice\u201d at all, but the result of a process that can be influenced (if not manipulated) by The System. No one would seriously argue, for instance, that on this planet the fabulously wealthy experience, on balance, a difference kind of justice than the terribly poor\u2014to offer but one obvious example. And there are more.<\/p>\n<p>Yet it is precisely those who yearn for justice on Earth, and cannot find it, who experience at least some small solace through knowing or thinking that there will be Justice in Heaven. It is very difficult to me to explain to them that there will be none. Not in the way that \u201cjustice\u201d is understood on Earth. Not in any way, actually.<\/p>\n<p>For \u201cjustice\u201d to be part of the \u201csystem\u201d of things in Heaven there would have to be some \u201claws\u201d to be broken\u2014and someone to be injured by the breaking of them. Neither exists in Paradise. Now there are those who say, \u201cYes, but both exist on Earth! The System of Justice in Heaven relates to the system of life on Earth, not life in Heaven. Life is Heaven is the <em>reward<\/em> for living righteously on Earth. And life in Hell is the <em>punishment<\/em> for not doing so. It\u2019s the \u2018payback\u2019 for those who have caused others pain and suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But what, I would ask, of the person who has caused pain and suffering to no one at all? Will the person who was kind, caring, compassionate, understanding, generous, forgiving, and loving unfailingly with everyone automatically receive the reward of Heaven?<\/p>\n<p>Not necessarily, some would say. Not unless that person believed in God in the \u201cright\u201d way. If he or she did not, then no amount of kindness or goodness, compassion or love that they displayed while here on Earth will matter one way or the other. They are still going to Hell, because they have offended God.<\/p>\n<p>And so, some say, there <em>is <\/em>a System of Justice in Heaven that has nothing to do with whether one hurts or injures another on Earth. It has to do with whether one hurts or injures God, who <em>lives<\/em> in Heaven, but keeps tabs on what is happening on Earth and makes sure that \u201cjustice is served\u201d one way or the other, now or after death.<\/p>\n<p>Some say the amount of \u201cpunishment\u201d that is meted out by God in Heaven depends on the severity of the \u201csins\u201d one has committed on Earth. Small sins\u2014something like spiritual misdemeanors\u2014are punishable by a limited amount of suffering imposed by God, in a place that some call Purgatory. But Really Big Sins are punishable by everlasting damnation in Hell.<\/p>\n<p>And some say that not believing in God in the Right Way is one of the Really Big Sins. In fact, some say, it is the Biggest.<\/p>\n<p>One can commit no greater offense against God. Even a repentant murderer can get into heaven, clerics routinely tell prisoners on Death Row. But a repentant murderer who does not believe in God in the Right Way has no chance whatsoever. So this is the biggest offense.<\/p>\n<p>This is how some religions have it structured; this is the doctrine some have taught. And we will talk more about all of this in Part 2 of this series, in the next entry here.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Part 1 of a 5-part series) Because Conversations with God says that \u201cthere\u2019s no such thing as Right and Wrong,\u201d people often ask me: \u201cIs there no \u2018justice\u2019 in God\u2019s Kingdom?\u201d As I have understood the messages of CWG, the answer is \u201cno.\u201d Not the way we understand it. Yet to fully answer this question [&hellip;]<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interpreting-conversations-with-god"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1405"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1407,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1405\/revisions\/1407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}